Scargill still yearns for 1970s rerun

Arthur Scargill, miners' leader and election challenger to former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool, yesterday launched the manifesto of his Socialist Labour Party with a call for a return to the 1970s - "the quicker the better".

The National Union of Mineworkers leader said his party would be putting up candidates in 116 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales, and stressed on the eve of today's May Day protests that he firmly backed "direct action" against capitalism.

At a sparsely attended press conference, Mr Scargill unveiled plans for a 10-year, £100bn programme to restore railways, buses and airlines to public ownership and slash defence expenditure by two thirds.

Boasting that the SLP will qualify for party election broadcasts in England, Scotland and Wales, Mr Scargill proclaimed: "When someone says we never want to go back to the 1970s, we say: we do, the quicker the better!"